turd

walked into the employee bathroom at my hospital and saw this:


are you kidding me?! was this a patient? a family member? an employee that did this?

laughter... followed by reflective sadness.

in other news, there's a great site when you have down-time at work. one that actually stimulates your brain instead of numbing it. one that actually has the potential to help others. how many grains of rice can you give today? a plethora?

marlow-on-a-mission

our dear friend, chris marlow is off to Africa for a 10-day mission trip and he needs your prayers....

lord, give them safety,
lord, give them guidance.
give them wisdom and reverence.
lord, send your spirit,
lord, send your grace.
send your providence and your peace.

see you soon, bro.

b-day

happy birthday, boston! we had a busy weekend. family from all over... baby dedication at hope... and lots of birthday cake with all our friends!

boston: jedi master

some consider this cruelty...

but being baby yoda has its perks. yoda got to ride his first carnival ride (at hope's harvest festival) and got to have his first lollipop!

one more to go...

i head home to raleigh today. i was just chuckling at two things:

-the southwest airlines clerk at the ticket desk is wearing a halloween costume. it's a head wound with a motorized rat gnawing away at it with bright red eyes.
-there are little birds inside the terminal. not flying around, but bouncing lightly on the floor; about three of them in all, following each other, startling weary passengers.

spending the weeks with Tim and Kristin this time around has made me wish I'd been able to every time (this would've been impossible as they just moved into the house). these two weeks, though heartbreakingly hard away from J & B, have just flown by. I felt so at home staying at the Ernst house. I got to see them every day. make human contact outside of work. have a home cooked meal every day, SITTING DOWN (crazy how this simple fact cuts way down on the drive-through quotient).

I stayed so busy I barely had time to read or play guitar - which is good and bad.

we're getting geared up for boston's first birthday party and baby dedication this weekend. should be loads of fun. pictures and stories soon....

birthday recap

for those who didn't know, yesterday was my thirty-#@!# birthday. here's an excerpt from my conversation with my mom:

mama wahba: happy birthday! thirty-#@!# years!
me: thanks mom.
mama wahba: now you're as old as Jesus was!
me: (puzzled) yeah... as old as he was when he was crucified....
mama wahba: uh. um. well. but that's how old he was.

ha ha. love you mom.

all in all, it was a good one. our close friends Tim & Kris (whose guest bedroom I happen to be occupying this trip to AZ) got me a cake with real candles and everything. and last night the folks at work chipped in to get some amazing mexican food platters from garcia's - including the mouth-watering Pollo Fundido.

I got birthday cards from most of my family that somehow found their way to me in Phoenix. and not one person sang an embarrassing, off-key version of "happy birthday" to me (that's a good thing).

thanks everyone. you made it a good-as-a-birthday-could-be-while-away-from-my-family.

come pick me up (live)

I accidently caught this on letterman one night a few months back. then I accidentally stumbled upon a link to it on a buddy's myspace page today.

one of the best, hard-core-yet-really-soft-core, broken-hearted love songs ever written. grab a hanky....

Ryan Adams Com Pick Me Up

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why philemon?

please don't misunderstand. I mean no blasphemy.

but as I read this morning, i sit and ponder, "why - tell me why would they bother to include the book of philemon in the new testament?"

random little letter (think email-length compared to the rest of paul's letters). written by paul, in jail, letting his buddy Philemon know that he is sending a slave, Onesimus to be a slave for him. that's it. random.

day without a mexican

anyone who knows Jodi and I will agree that we love mockumentaries. last night we got to watch one that's been on our blockbuster cue for a few months: A Day Without a Mexican.

while I'm definitely opinionated/passionate about the topic of immigration (both my parents immigrated to this country; I work at a hospital where 85% of the patients are non-legal immigrants; the list goes on), i'll do my best to refrain from this post becoming a PSA. here's my super-quick review of the movie itself:

the good: great premise. really good message. mockumentaries rock - especially with social commentary, comedy and a little controversy thrown in.

the bad: poor acting. multiple story lines that don't really go anywhere. really preachy. and apparently they got lots of their facts wrong.

overall opinion of the movie: watch the trailer online. then sit down with some level-headed friends/family and talk it out over a few beers and a game of cards. you'll get more out of it.

dc trip

this week, we went to visit our friends Alvin & Nicole in the DC area. so great to see them and their little Jeremiah.

we also managed to make it to Ikea.

Ikea... great furniture. cheap prices. huge migraine by the end. we spent like 5 hours there and had to rent a Uhaul trailer to get everything back home to NC. not to mention that we've been home for three days and I'm still putting furniture together....

we're finally settling into the house though (if you're a numbers person, we're about 95% done with the remodel and 60% done unpacking). can't wait till it's all done so I can get back to writing and recording again....